Companies are buying your personal private information…and they aren’t buying it from you.

Have you ever Googled a product, destination, or service simply for more information…then when you login to Facebook, what’s sitting there in your feed? An advertisement from Amazon for the product you just searched.

Companies are using your data against you to manipulate you into buying products and services.

According to WIRED’s Cathy O’Neil, “Information is power, and in the age of corporate surveillance, profiles on every active American consumer means that the system is slanted in favor of those with the data. This data helps build tailor-made profiles that can be used for or against someone in a given situation."

And these violations are getting worse by the day. Google just partnered with companies that will give them access to 70% of all US credit and debit card transactions. Which means, not only does Google know what you’re doing online, but they now know what you’re doing offline as well.

“Right now, Google and other online advertisers lack the data to draw a strong connection between online ads and purchases in real life. Google has the tools to track what you buy online, assuming you remain logged into your account and choose to share your browsing data. Offline, Google can do little more than track your location to guess at what you're buying and peek at data from Android Pay. Google's hope is that offline purchase data will confirm that the ads you see online do, in fact, influence what you buy in real life. That could tempt companies to increase ad spending online, which would be a windfall for Google.” - CNBC, 5.24.17